System to decode video signal from electronic gaming device and to determine play information

ABSTRACT

A video output signal analyzes that analyzes a video output signal to determine game play information. In video poker, card values and player strategies can be determined based on a “reverse encoding” of the video signal to determine the original video bitmap. The bitmap can then be analyzed to determine what is taking place during a game, without having to receive this information directly from the processing unit that is actually implementing the game.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationfiled on Aug. 31, 2006 with a title of CLOSED-LOOP SYSTEM FOR PROVIDINGADDITIONAL EVENT PARTICIPATION TO ELECTRONIC VIDEO GAME CUSTOMER andassigned Ser. No. 11/468,946, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S.patent application filed on Oct. 20, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,335,106with a title of CLOSED-LOOP SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING PROMOTIONAL EVENTS ANDGRANTING AWARDS FOR ELECTRONIC VIDEO GAMES and assigned Ser. No.10/689,407, both of which are concurrently pending and are incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system to decode video signal outputon an Electronic Gaming Device (EGD) and determine player actions whichcan then be transmitted to a casino database for promotional and otheruse.

2. Description of the Related Art

Video poker is a popular form of wagering in a casino. In a standardgame of video poker, a player is dealt five cards, the player canindicate which cards the player wishes to discard, upon which the playercan press a draw button and the discarded cards can then be replaced.Video poker machines can transmit to a casino host a result of each gamewhich includes how much the player has won or lost on each game.

The current infrastructure may not provide an easy way for an EGD totransmit a video poker player's decisions. For example, a player maychoose to select to hold certain cards but the EGD may be designed toonly transmit to a casino database certain limited information. However,other systems may be configured to provide further information regardingthe player actions, cards dealt, cards held etc.

For years the casino industry has been faced with a dichotomy; slotplayers are rated on a real time actual basis while table games playersare rated on an estimated basis. Part of the problem for casinos is thatin blackjack in particular, player decisions may significantly affectthe expected win for a casino. Likewise with video poker, playerdecisions have a significant impact on casino win. However, presentsystems may not be capable of accounting for the impact of playerdecisions in video poker. The result is that casinos only realize verylate in their relationship with a customer that their play variessubstantially from what it should be. Present systems typically utilizean average theoretical win per hand for video poker players as opposedto trying to accurately gauge the true value of a video poker player.

It would be desirable if the EGD could transmit to the casino databaseinformation about what decisions the player has made. Certain playersmay be more desirable to the casino than other players based on theirdecisions. By not transmitting such information, the casino is missingout on relevant information. For systems that do transmit detailed playinformation, it is desirable for a system that collects, analyzes andprocesses the received information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In general, the present invention includes a system and method to decodea video signal output from an EGD and displayed on an output device. Thevideo signal can then be analyzed to determine information about whathas taken place during a game. The information can then be transmittedto a casino database in order that the casino database can tabulate andstore the relevant information so it can be used at a later time.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the decoded video includesstandard video signals that are transmitted to or sent to the gamingdevice or the video display. In another embodiment of the presentinvention, the video content can be slightly modified to embedinformation, such as through the creation of a covert channel. In yetanother embodiment of the invention, the items displayed can bewatermarked and the content displayed can be verified by reading theembedded watermarks.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various aspects, features and advantages of the present invention willbecome fully appreciated as the same becomes better understood whenconsidered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which likereference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout theseveral views, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating an EGD with a video signalanalyzer.

FIG. 2 is an output of a first stage of a video poker game.

FIG. 3 is an output of a second stage of a video poker game.

FIG. 4 is an output of a third stage of a video poker game.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a process to decode and transmit video signals.

FIG. 6A is a system diagram illustrating how a video signal isgenerated.

FIG. 6B is a system diagram illustrating a possible structure of thevideo signal analyzer.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is directed to a video signal analyzer which canreceive a video signal of an electronic gaming device (EGD) that istransmitted to an output device (such as a CRT or touch screen display).The analyzer does not interfere with the output signal and the EGD playsnormally. The analyzer analyzes the video signal to decipher what isgoing on during play of the EGD and can extract useful information fromthe output signal. The useful information can then be transmitted to acasino database so that the casino can store this information for lateruse for marketing, promotional, or other purposes.

FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating an EGD with a video signalanalyzer. An EGD 100 can comprise a processing unit 101 which contains aprocessor, cache, and other components to drive a wagering game such asvideo poker (or other games such as slot machines). A memory 102 isconnected to the processing unit 101 which is used to store data neededfor play of the game. The processing unit 101 is connected to a videoencoder 103 which takes a digital image in video memory and converts itto a video signal which can be output to an output device (e.g., NTSC,PAL, VGA, SVGA, DVI, S-Video, component, composite, or other standard orproprietary format)

The video encoder 103 transmits the video signal to a splitter 105 whichsplits the video signal into a first signal and a second signal. A firstsignal is output to an output device 106, such as an LCD display, touchscreen display, etc. The second signal is transmitted to a video signalanalyzer 107. The splitter 105 and the video signal analyzer 107 canexist inside the physical EGD or can exist externally to the EGD as anindependent, or separate unit. FIG. 1 shows them all internal to the EGDfor simplicity.

The video signal analyzer 107 serves to analyze the second signal, whichis identical to the original video signal, (but not interfering withoutput of the original video signal sent the output device 106). Theanalysis comprises constructing a block of memory to mimic what thevideo memory used by the video encoder to generate the video signallooks like. Then, this block of memory is analyzed in order to determineactions taking place in the game and also by the player. For example,character recognition can be used to identify each card dealt to theplayer. Replacement cards can also be detected, and other cues from theblock of memory can be used (such as a “GAME OVER”) indicator to notewhen the game has been completed. From these images, the video signalanalyzer can determine which cards the player was dealt, which cards theplayer decided to hold or discard, and what the replacement cards were.Such “game play information” can then be transmitted to a casino server108 which can store the information in a database in a record tagged tothe current player. The current player can be identified by a loyaltycard used by the current player inserted into a loyalty card reader (notpictured). The processing unit 101 can also be in communication with thecasino server 108 so that the processing unit 101 can transmit otherinformation, such as the bet amount, win or loss result, etc.

Thus, while the processing unit 101 transmits information to the casinoserver 108 so that the casino server 108 knows how many credits thecurrent player has, the video signal analyzer 107 can also transmitinformation to the casino server 108 (or another casino database) sothat more detailed game play data can be extracted and stored by thecasino.

FIG. 2 is an output of a first stage of a video poker game. A playerplaces a wager by inserting cash, indicating to the machine how much theplayer wishes to bet, and presses a “deal” button. Five cards are dealtto a player. The player can indicate which cards to hold (for example bytouching the cards on a touch screen display), and then press a “draw”button (either on the touch screen display or a physical draw button),whereby all of the cards that are not selected to be held are replaced.

A sample payout table is illustrated in Table I below.

TABLE I Hand Pays Royal flush 800 Straight flush 50 Four of a kind 25Full house 9 Flush 6 Straight 4 Three of a kind 3 Two pair 2 Pair 1

Table I shows various winning hands and their payouts per coin bet. Foreach five card hand dealt to a player, there is a proper way for theplayer to select which cards to hold and discard in order to maximizethe player's winnings.

In the example in FIG. 2, the player is dealt an ace of spades 201, aqueen of spades 202, a four of clubs 203, a ten of spades 204, and ajack of spades 205. Note that the player is one card away from achievinga royal flush. Thus, the player would be playing optimally by holdingall of the cards but for the four of clubs 203 in the hope of drawing aking of spades to make a royal flush. If the player decides to take anyother action then the player would not be playing optimally. Forexample, if the player holds the ace of spades, the queen of spades, andthe jack of spades, then this would have an expected return of much lessthan if the player played properly.

In the long run, a casino can determine a player's actual expected win(the amount this player would be expected to win based on their skilllevel) by computing total win/total bet. In other words, if the playerwon (was paid out) $90 and bet $100 (to earn the $90 payout), then theplayer's theoretical win is 90%. However, since video poker has a highvariance, a very large number of hands would have to be played by theplayer in order for the casino to determine the player's truetheoretical. This is because the player can play poorly but still belucky and win money. A better way to determine a player's theoreticalwin is to determine the skill level of each player without regard to howmuch the player has actually won or lost. This is because the cards theplayer will draw are actually beyond the player's control, but thestrategy the player chooses is nevertheless under the player's control.

The player's goal is to win the most money by achieving a high rankinghand. Video poker has a definite player strategy wherein a player shouldmaximize the win of his hand by playing the proper strategy. Optimalstrategy is a video poker strategy wherein the player plays perfectly inall situations.

FIG. 3 is an output of a second stage of a video poker game. In thesecond stage, the player has decided to hold the ace of spades 201, thequeen of spades 202, the ten of spades 204, and the jack of spades 205.The output device displays an indicator for each card held (for example,“HOLD”) so that the player knows which card he is holding.

When the player is satisfied with his selection of cards to hold anddiscard (cards not held are to be discarded), the player can press a“draw” button, which will replace the discarded cards with new cardsrandomly “dealt” from the deck.

In this example, the player has played properly by holding the fourcards to a royal flush.

FIG. 4 is an output of a third stage of a video poker game.

The EGD replaces the four of clubs 203 with a new card, a three ofdiamonds 302. This is a losing hand (according to Table I) and theplayer loses his original wager. Even though the player played properly,the player of course cannot win each time, and in fact the probabilityof the player drawing into the royal flush was small (but the potentialaward large). A “GAME OVER” indicator 402 indicates that the game isover. The player can now decide to begin a brand new game by placing anew wager, or cash out by pressing a “cash out” button on the EGD.

By analyzing the video signals, the present invention can identify thefollowing information from the display illustrated in FIGS. 2-4: Theplayer was initially dealt an ace of spades 201, a queen of spades 202,a four of clubs 203, a ten of spades 204, and a jack of spades 205; thatthe player held the ace of spades 201, the queen of spades 202, the tenof spades 204, and the jack of spades 205, and that the replacement cardwas a three of diamonds 302. This information can be considered “gameplay information.” Game play information is information regardingoccurrences during the game and player actions (if any) which are usedto determine a result.

The game play information can be analyzed locally by the video signalanalyzer 107 (or another component), to determine the player error (ifany), and then the error can be transmitted to the casino database. Ifthe player does not play the hand properly, this can be considered anerror. The casino database can store player information such as a totalnumber of hands played by the player and an average error. Thisinformation can be used by the casino hosts when deciding to whichplayers to offer incentives. A player of a lesser playing level might bemore attractive to a casino than a player who plays perfect strategy.

The video signal analyzer 107 scans the video signal in real time inorder to determine the game play information. It should also beappreciated that the present invention may operate in an environment inwhich the EGD does provide an output identifying all of the playingparameters or a more robust subset of the playing parameters. Thus, insome embodiments, the present invention may be required to rely totallyon an analysis of the video content, while other embodiments may use amixture of video content analysis coupled with information provided overthe bus of the EGD (such as the SAS port) and in other embodiments, theinvention may only utilize the data provided from the EGD machine dataport.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a process to decode and transmit video signalsat the start of a new game.

Process 500 recognizes the cards dealt initially. This can be done bypre-storing the image files used for generating each of the cards andalso storing where on the screen the cards are to be displayed. Thevideo signal analyzer 107 can compare each image on the pre-storedlocations and when an image file matches what is received from the videosignal then it is known that this is a particular card. All five cardsdealt can be determined in this manner.

Process 502 detects changes in the output. If the screen has changed,then some action must have occurred.

Process 504 determines whether the hand is completed. This can beperformed by checking in a particular location on the output device(actually in a block of memory which is mimicking the video memory) fora game termination indicator, such as a “GAME OVER” indicator. If thehand is not yet completed (the game is not yet over), then flow canreturn to process 502 which continues monitoring and detecting changesin the video signal.

When process 504 determines that the hand is completed, then the overallprocess continues to process 506 which determine the player'sindications of cards to hold. This can be done by detecting new cardsthat were not present when the initial cards were recognized in process500. This can also be accomplished by identifying “hold” or “selected”indicators that identify the held cards. When a new card is detected(using the method described in process 500), then this can be assumedthat it replaced a card “behind” it (and thus the player did not selectthis card to be held).

Thus, knowing the initially dealt cards and the replacement cards, itcan be determined which cards the player selected to hold. Thus, knowingall of this information, in conjunction with the known paytable, theplayer's strategy (and the player's error, if any) can be computed.

Process 508 computes the error and transmits the error to the casinodatabase 508. The optimal strategy for the hand dealt to the player canbe determined and the way the player has played out the hand can becompared to the optimal strategy to determine if the player playedproperly or not. The error can be computed by subtracting thetheoretical win from the way the player actually played from the optimalreturn (the return if the player played the hand perfectly). Thus, forexample, if optimal strategy results in an average return of 101% andthe way the player played results in an average return of 98%, then theplayer has made an error which cost him 3%.

Referring now to FIGS. 2-4, the process illustrated in FIG. 5 will nowbe applied. In FIG. 2, process 500 would recognize all five cards. Thefive cards would be stored in a RAM.

Process 502 would continue receiving and analyzing the video signal todetect changes in output so those changes can be analyzed. When in FIG.3, the player is indicated his selections to hold, process 502 woulddetect these changes and then process 504 would determine whether thehand is over. This can be determined by detecting a game terminationcondition such as the “GAME OVER” message or any other visual cue thatthe game is over. The hardware implementing the process illustrated inFIG. 5 would be programmed with knowledge of the video poker game inquestion so it would know the locations of elements such as cards andother visual cues or indicators so that the progress of the game can befollowed. The process can continue to process 502 and continue detectingchanges until process 504 determines that the game has ended.

When the player has completed his selection of cards to hold (in thiscase first, second, fourth, and fifth card), and the player pressesdraw, then the display illustrated in FIG. 4 results. Process 504 candetermine that the “GAME OVER” indicator has appeared, thus indicatingthat the current game is over.

Once the game has ended, then process 506 can determine the playerstrategy. The final cards should still remain on the screen and thecards ranks can be discerned as the initial cards were. It would berecorded that only one card changed, the third card, from a four ofclubs to a three of diamonds. Thus it can be concluded that the playerheld the first, second, fourth, and fifth card, playing properly.

The process can begin anew for each new game played by the player. Afterprocess 506, detection can still be active for when the player starts anew game. This can be accomplished, for example, when new cards aredealt, the “GAME OVER” indicator has been removed, or some change hasbeen detected on the actual output. Once a new game been detected, theprocess in FIG. 5 can begin over again.

Thus, by analyzing the video signal, at least the following game playinformation can be determined: that the player's initial cards were: acespades, queen spades, four clubs, ten spades, jack of spades; that theplayer held the ace spades, queen spades, ten spades, and jack spades;and that the four of clubs was replaced with a three of diamonds. Notethat the latter piece of information may not even be necessary, as theplayer's error is not affected by the player's actual result. Whetherthe player hit the royal flush or not would not be indicative at all ofwhether the player had played properly or not in this instance. A playerwho plays perfectly or close to perfectly (little or no error) isconsidered to have high skill, while the player who plays with a largermargin of error (from perfect strategy) is considered to have poorskill.

FIG. 6A is a system diagram illustrating how a video signal isgenerated. A video memory 601 is read by a signal encoder 601 whichtransforms the image in the video memory 600 into a video signalreadable by an output device. The encoder is programmed specifically fora particular type of video signal.

FIG. 6B is a system diagram illustrating a possible structure of thevideo signal analyzer. This can be considered the reverse of what takesplace in FIG. 6A. A video output (such as the video output from FIG. 6A)is fed into a signal decoder 602. The signal decoder 602 can beconsidered the opposite of the signal encoder 601. The signal decoder602 receives the video output signal and converts it into an image mapor video memory mimic 603 (a block of RAM) which is memory that storesvalues that can be identical or correlated to what the video memory wasthat was used to create the video output signal in the first place. Forexample, if the video output signal is a digital signal, then each pixelof the digital signal can be mapped to a pixel in the video memory mimic603 (for example using a pixel map).

Once the video memory mimic 603 is generated, then this can be analyzedusing image recognition techniques. A recognizer/analyzer 604 recognizesimages in the video memory mimic 603 can perform an analysis on what isrecognized (for example, perform the process illustrated in FIG. 5).

A plurality of image maps can be stored so that the recognizer/analyzer604 can retrieved the images maps and compare them to relevant portionsof the video memory mimic 603. When a match is found, then therecognizer/analyzer 604 knows that a particular element is beingdisplayed. As soon as the initial cards are dealt, therecognizer/analyzer 604 should recognize the card images and determinethe card ranks (which are mapped to each card image) immediately. Thenthe recognizer/analyzer 604 can wait until the game is completed andthen determine which (if any) cards were replaced, so the player'sdecision (strategy) can be determined.

It is noted that the examples and methods described in this document arejust one example of how the invention can be implemented, but one ofordinary skill in the art could appreciate that video poker can beimplemented in different fashions and that processes herein should betailored to the particular version of video poker (or other game) beingplayed.

Once data has been produced (for example, a skill rating of the playerfor a particular hand of video poker), the data can be transmitted to atransmission unit 605 which then transmits the data to a casinodatabase. The data may be transmitted with some type of identifieridentifying the current player.

In an embodiment of the present invention, player decisions on videopoker machines in real time are used to determine true video poker houseadvantage and using the same to compute theoretical win for the purposesof complimentary qualification.

The invention thus utilizes actual player hold/discard decisions forindividual poker hands to ascertain a more accurate theoretical winpercentage for individual players. This method involves comparing actualplayer decisions to best or optimal strategy to derive a more accuratetheoretical win expectation which can then be used to derive theoreticalwin and other related statistics. Players that play at a highertheoretical win expectation (a better player) may not be desirableplayers to the casino, while players that play at a lower theoreticalwin expectation (worse players) may be more desirable. The worse videopoker players may receive marketing promotions (such as free ordiscounted room) in order that they visit the casino where they willhopefully lose money playing video poker.

One advantage of the present invention is that direct communication witha processing unit (such as processing unit 101) which is controlling thegame is not needed (and such communication may not even be possible).Thus, if the casino wishes to know what a player's playing strategy is,then a video signal analyzer and related apparatuses can be implementedto produce game play information relating to the player's game(including the player's errors) can be implemented.

It is further noted that the methods described herein are not merelylimited to video poker. The present invention can be applied to anyother type of wagering game. For example, video blackjack can beprocessed similarly, so that a player's skill at video blackjack can bedetermined. Even slot machine games can be analyzed so that eachindividual symbol can be determined and stored. While such slot machinegames may not require any skill, it may still be helpful to the casinoto track which symbols have appeared during the player's play.

Another aspect of the present invention is the analysis of the videocontent to verify authenticity of the gaming software. For instance, ina video poker game, a watermark can be embedded in the playing cards. Byreading the video content and examining the watermark, the authenticityof the software driving the display can be verified. Also, the watermarkcan be structured in such a manner that it greatly simplifies theability to detect the video content. For instance, rather than having toanalyze the entire video stream to ascertain the content of the video,the special embedded signals can be search for and detected.

It will be appreciated that the above described methods and embodimentsmay be varied in many ways, including, changing the order of steps, andthe exact implementation used. The present invention has been describedusing detailed descriptions of embodiments thereof that are provided byway of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.The described embodiments comprise different features and aspects, notall of which are required in all embodiments of the invention. Someembodiments of the present invention utilize only some of the featuresor aspects or possible combinations of thereof. Variations ofembodiments of the present invention that are described and embodimentsof the present invention comprising different combinations of featuresnoted in the described embodiments will occur to persons of the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A video analyzing apparatus, the apparatuscomprising: a video signal analyzer receiving a video output signal froman electronic gaming device, being operated by a particular player, thevideo output signal being the signal sent to the display for the userinterface of the electronic gaming device, said video signal analyzercomprising a signal decoder to decode the video output signal and toconstruct a video memory image based on the video output signal and arecognizer/analyzer unit to recognize characters and/or images in thevideo memory image, whereby said video signal analyzer determines gameplay information and game status from the video output signal byapplying character recognition to the video content to identify keywords indicative of game status and character and image recognition toidentify game play information; and a transmission unit transmitting thegame play information to a casino database for storage and tagged forthe particular player.
 2. The video analyzing apparatus as recited inclaim 1, wherein the recognizer/analyzer unit analyzes recognized imagesin the video memory image and determines the game play information whichcontains player strategy information for a current player.
 3. The videoanalyzing apparatus as recited in claim 2, wherein the electronic gamingdevice is video poker and the gameplay information comprises the suit ofeach card dealt, the value of each card dealt, the cards held by theplayer, the cards discarded by the player, the bet sequences of theplayer.
 4. The video analyzing apparatus as recited in claim 1, whereinthe electronic gaming device plays—is video poker and the gameplayinformation comprises the suit of each card dealt, the value of eachcard dealt, the cards held by the player, the cards discarded by theplayer, the bet sequences of the player.
 5. The video analyzingapparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein the player strategy informationis how the current player played a hand of video poker.
 6. The videoanalyzing apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein the game playinformation is a computation of a skill of current player of theelectronic gaming device on a hand of video poker.
 7. The videoanalyzing apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the game playinformation is how a current player of the electronic gaming deviceplayed a hand of video poker.
 8. A method executable by a processingunit for determining game play information from a video signal used todisplay a wagering game on an output device, the method comprising thesteps of: detecting a video signal that is provided to the display ofthe wagering game during play and obtaining the video signal as anoutput video signal; constructing a memory block from the video outputsignal to correlate to video memory used to generate the video outputsignal; and analyzing the memory block to identify game play informationcomprising characters and images of the wagering game.
 9. The method asrecited in claim 8, wherein the wagering game is video poker.
 10. Themethod as recited in claim 9, wherein the step of analyzing the memoryblock further comprise identifying a player decision pertaining to whichinitial cards to hold.
 11. The method as recited in claim 10, whereinthe step of analyzing the memory block further comprises, determining atheoretical win of the player skill based on the decision.
 12. Themethod as recited in claim 11, wherein the step of analyzing the memoryblock further comprises storing the theoretical win of the player skillin a casino database.
 13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein thestep of analyzing the memory block further comprises using the playerskill in the casino database to determine casino promotional offers. 14.The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the step of analyzing thememory block further comprises storing initial cards dealt andreplacement cards in a casino database.
 15. The method as recited inclaim 8, wherein the wagering game is a keno game.
 16. The method asrecited in claim 15, wherein the step of analyzing the memory blockfurther comprise identifying a pattern on the keno grid.
 17. The methodas recited in claim 15, wherein the step of analyzing the memory blockfurther comprises, determining a ball draw.
 18. A method of analyzingvideo signals of an electronic gaming device for determining game playinformation from a video output signal, the method comprising: aprocessor receiving a video output signal from the electronic gamingdevice, the video signal output being split from the video signal fed tothe display of the electronic gaming device; decoding the video outputsignal to construct a video memory image based upon the video outputsignal; detecting characters and images in the video memory image;determining gaming activity and identify a playing strategy of a gameplayed by a current player of the electronic gaming device based uponsaid detected characters and images; and tracking the current player'splaying skill based on the determined playing strategy.
 19. The methodas recited in claim 18, wherein the electronic gaming device is a videopoker machine.